CRS: Trade Primer: Qs and As on Trade Concepts, Performance, and Policy, March 27, 2007

From WikiLeaks

The CRS is a Congressional "think tank" with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.

Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.

This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.

The 110th Congress has a full legislative and oversight agenda on international trade. The agenda may include considering legislation to implement a number of free trade agreements, possible renewal of trade promotion authority (TPA), as well as oversight of U.S. trade relations with China. This report provides information and context for many of these topics. It is divided into four sections in a question-and-answer format: trade concepts, U.S. trade performance, formulation of U.S. trade policy, and trade and investment issues. Additional suggested readings are provided in an appendix.